


All Creatures Great and Small

by IrisClou



Series: Sensei Squared [Kaka/Iru/Tsu] [10]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, BASICALLY: AU WHERE IRUKA IS A VETERINARIAN, M/M, THE PUPPY LIVES. ITS OKAY. HAPPY ENDING I PROMISE, and kakashi is? A private investigator? we havent decided. this may be a oneshot, anyway theres some gore/animal injury so like heads up. its PREEEETTTY brief, nothing says bonding like impromptu surgery with a stranger
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-09
Updated: 2019-07-09
Packaged: 2020-06-25 04:31:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,824
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19738363
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IrisClou/pseuds/IrisClou
Summary: One night, a stranger begins pounding on Dr. Umino's door, dying puppy in hand.Iruka always dreamed of finding his one true love in a dramatic way, but this...?Couldn't he just sleep the night through for once instead?





	All Creatures Great and Small

**Author's Note:**

> listen. im lawfully wedded to the ENTIRE james herriot series. please for the love of god if you havent read ACGS, I BEG OF YOU. DO SO
> 
> also i worked for a vet for a couple years a ways back so like i CANNOT vouch all of this is in accurate order. sue me.

**[[sober up | ajr]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3orqPl83Dk) **

It was at two am that Iruka Umino realized with a dizzying nausea that he had become a veterinarian out of love and not sleep. Or money. 

The young man was ripped from his peaceful dreams of effortlessly delivering foals, impressing his graduating class with how calmly he untangled gangly legs; as if he were simply undoing a kimono bow. 

But such was not his reality. His reality was a small, humble bedroom with a fan that had done little to keep the humid summer Konoha air from suffocating him in his sleep. His reality was his cat scrambling across his blanket, clawing his face as it ricocheted towards the ceiling in terror -- his reality was the yelling at the door, frantic fists pounding on the entrance to the office. 

Iruka managed to tumble out of bed in a jumbled heap, his own limbs harder to untangle than his dream foals'. He gasped, eyes rolling as his leaden head ached, scrambling to get sweaty palms on the doorknob. 

His mind raced. A shih tzu with a chicken bone lodged in the throat? Torn ACL of a boxer? Anaphylactic shock from a labrador eating rat poison? Or worse...prolapsed uterus of the heifer up in the hills, one that would take him until opening for him to fix, with barely more than a couple minutes to spare to scrape the dried blood out from under his nails. He stopped at a breech foal from the farm in the mountains, shaking the anxiety from his head, fingers working quickly to tie his hair up in a hasty ponytail as he shuffled toward the tiny lobby.

The young vet saw the stranger on the other side of the door, something wrapped in a towel in his arm, the other banging repeatedly on the foggy glass. 

It abruptly stopped and turned to waving as the man caught sight of someone inside. 

"Hello!" It was muffled, of course, and Iruka was quick to unlock the door, though half of him still wished he'd just kept his earbuds in and slept through it all. "I'm...I'm so sorry for coming at this time of night, but I, he's...he's in a bad way." 

The stranger lifted the bundled towel up to the vet, a tiny puppy inside gasping erratically for breath in between bouts of complete stillness. 

_ Oh. Oh  _ Christ _ , don't let it be agonal respiration.  _ He gave a silent prayer, taking the animal from the man, hazel eyes fixed acutely on it for a few seconds. If that were the case, it was hopeless, and a small dose of b-euth would be the only way to end its suffering. 

"Please, follow me to the surgery. I may need your help." Iruka nodded in the direction of a knobless door. "It won't be much, so don't worry." 

The stranger nodded solemnly, doing as he was told. 

"This is a bad time for introductions, but we don't have much choice." The young vet chuckled, laying the puppy down on the surgery table, unwrapping the towel to see the damage done. 

"Hatake. Kakashi Hatake." The silver haired man said softly, gaze trained on the little animal. 

"You can just call me Iruka." He murmured back, pulling on the dusted blue gloves and surgery coat over his pajamas. "Mr. Hatake, please don't lean over him. If you would be so kind, turn on that lamp--yes the one above us, and shine it over his abdomen." 

It was a ragged wound, as if he had been caught in barbed wire, and nearly eviscerated himself. Fresh and congealed blood covered the poor puppy's belly, combined with dirt and urine. 

"Please, stay calm. There's a machine over there, yes, yes, please flick on the red switch and bring the mask over. We need him under to operate."

Over the course of a minute, Kakashi, who had only  _ seen  _ or even  _ initiated  _ crime scenes, was helping patch one up. He carefully held the tiny anesthetization mask over the puppy's mouth and nose, gray eyes focused on his breathing, borrowed stethoscope to the baby's fleeting heartbeat. 

"Pull open his eyelid as I unwrap the kit, they need to be inward. Yes, crossed. Let me know if he begins to look at you, and I'll turn down the--yes, yes, he'll squirm a bit. Keep him still please." 

Kakashi learned to tie slip knots from the trembling paws to the bottom of the surgery table, throat dry as he watched Iruka get to work. 

~~I KNOW NONE OF THIS IS IN ORDER BUT ITS BEEN FIVE YEARS IM LAAUHGIGN~~

"Hemostat--Hemo as in blood - yes, the pinchy ones, like pliers - not the scissors, he's done plenty of that to himself, ahaha…" Iruka kept up a steady stream of semi-educational one-sided conversation as he compressed the bleeding tissue and cleaned the wounds. Kakashi was transfixed at the scene. How calm the man was with this half dead puppy's life in his hands, how he would joke and chuckle, glasses eeking down the bridge of his nose.

"Mr. Hatake, this may seem a bit forward for our current relationship," he puffed a laugh, but I have a headband on the x-ray table there -- yes, he'll be just fine for a couple seconds, and pardon my language, but it's hotter than a pig's dick in here, and I'd rather not have sweat in my eyes." 

Kakashi, a weak smile on his face, retrieved the navy bandana and helped tie it around the young vet's forehead. 

"Thanks. Now, please, where you were." 

It was a grueling hour and a half, but the tiny puppy was in one piece at the end of it. 

"Are you seeing this stitchwork?" Iruka chuckled, suturing up the last torn bit of flesh, "would make my grandmother proud." He dumped a liberal amount of a strange powder on the wound, dusting it around with a cloth. "Glad it didn't go septic -- considering how bad it looked, it was actually quite straightforward." 

Kakashi stared dumbly at the mangled chunk of intestine on the metal tray. 

"Minimal, really. I promise he won't even notice." Iruka reassured him, untying the ropes and turning off the anesthetizer.  ~~IDK WHAT ITS CALLED I FORGOT . THE SLEEPY MACHINE~~

"Here, take him. He's probably very cold now. Keep him under your shirt collar and rub him gently while I get the incubator set up." The young vet plopped the little pup in the confused man's hands. "He'll make all sorts of godawful noises and movements, but he'll be fine. I'm not easy to wake up either." Iruka laughed, stripping off the bloody coat and tossing it to the floor. He knew in a few seconds, the post surgery fatigue would set in and he'd be shaking from head to foot. The coat could wait. 

Kakashi did as he was told once more, blind trust having paid off once before. He watched the little baby huff and puff for air, snoring oddly as consciousness came back to it. Glancing up, he realized just how cramped the surgery room was -- during the operation, he didn't pay attention to how he had to squeeze about.

"Ah, one last thing." Iruka returned with a needle in hand, and scruffed the pup to give him a quick shot. "Ceftriaxone." At the incredulous look, he snickered. "Antibiotic. He's little, and he needs the help." 

-

Once the puppy was snuffling around in the incubator with a little water dish, Iruka turned a bright beaming face to Kakashi.

"You saved him just as much as I did. Be happy." He gave the man a friendly pat on the back. "But he isn't out of the woods yet, so I'll look after him for a couple days." 

The young vet tilted his head in the direction of a door Kakashi had never noticed before. 

"Come inside and get washed up. I'll put on the kettle." He said cheerily, despite running on lack of sleep and the midnight sun streaming through the kennelroom windows. 

Before Kakashi could argue, Iruka was out the door and yanking off his pajama top with a vengeance, sweat glistening on the well muscled back. But the gleam was nothing in comparison to a pale star shaped scar that bisected his shoulders like white lightning. 

Kakashi followed him into a modest kitchen. 

"Sinks there. I'll be right back. Make yourself comfortable." Iruka draped the top around his neck like a towel. "Stay hydrated, alright?"

\--

Iruka returned in a tank and cargo shorts, looking a lot more relaxed than before. His sienna hair fell around his shoulders in hastily blow-dryed locks, still a bit of shine on his biceps from the hasty shower.

He casually gave Kakashi a wave, as if he simply belonged in the kitchen, before opening the fridge door and sticking his head in, sighing in relief at the cold air.

"I've gotta get this stupid AC fixed." He groaned. "I'd do it myself, but…" He took out a cold bottle of beer, and turned to the man, before looking down at the drink in his hand. "Ah, shit, I forgot it's technically morning." He swapped the alcohol with a glass of milk. 

He settled at the kitchen table across from Kakashi, the ceiling fan above them providing slightly more comfort than a stuffy surgery.

Iruka blinked, really taking in the man's face for the first time. 

He wore a dark bandana around his mouth, and a matching headband that slipped low over his left eye, hiding it from view. The other was a cool, storm gray. **  
**

How odd -- but Iruka paid more attention on average to his patients rather than their owners. 

However...he looked...familiar.

"Hatake, was it?" The young vet frowned slightly. "Haven't we met? School, maybe?" 

Whoever he was, Iruka's heart had begun to pound that that much harder, cheeks flushed -- he was  _ terribly  _ attractive, with stunning white hair and an angular jaw. He hoped he could blame the blush on the heat. 

"I mean, not vet school, of course." The young man laughed nervously. "Like, highschool. You have a face I wouldn't easily forget-- ah, I mean…" He stammered, trying to cover himself, "In a good way, not--"

Iruka put his head in his hands, rubbing his temples, utterly flustered at two things: one, the fact an absolute  _ model  _ of a man was in his kitchen, and  _ two,  _ the fact he was allowing it to get to him. After his last... _ relationship  _ with a man had ended in tears, he'd sworn the rest of them off as nothing but bad luck. 

He shrugged inwardly -- he only liked  _ women,  _ anyway, right? The last..it was simply a mistake. 

He hoped he wasn't looking at his next one. 

"...Let's start back at square one." He sighed, beaming up at the man. "I'm Iruka Umino, DVM. Now, what tea would you like? Earl Grey, Oolong...Chai...I've got a decent stash, really." 


End file.
